Psychology Roadmaps: KS4/5

A Roadmap is a visual, way to show students their “Journey” through, in this instance, GCSE Psychology. This usually begins in Year 10 (age 15) in England and Wales and lasts for two years (although, just to confuse non-UK viewers some schools start this course in Year 9 and run it over 3 years).

What I’ve cobbled together here are a range of Roadmaps that both reflect this difference – most cover 2 years but a couple refer to 3 – and extend it: in a separate section I’ve listed Roadmaps that cover both KS4 (GCSE) and KS5 (A-level). The latter, in part, reflects the fact Psychology, unlike Sociology, is far more likely to be taught pre-16 and students have, therefore, a more-integrated pathway through the subject from 15 – 18.

If you’re reading this from somewhere outside the UK (Scotland do things sort-of differently) you’re very likely to find all of this very confusing and not a little bit ridiculous. All I can say is: Welcome to the Pleasure Dome that is English and Welsh education…

Otherwise, as with their KS4 Sociology and KS5 Sociology counterparts, there’s no standardised way to construct a Roadmap (why aren’t you surprised by that?) so those you’ll find listed below are many and varied – and while they’re by no means an essential part of a Teacher’s Toolkit I do think they have a place in the curriculum.

Whether that place is simply keeping students (and maybe their parents) appraised of what the course involves or as an OfSted crowd-pleaser I’ll leave it to you to decide. Either way, the least that can be said of them is that they do no harm (Probably. Don’t quote me on that), while more-positively I think they’re a useful way of involving students in their course by showing them a visual representation of the things they will be studying over the next 2 – 4 years.

How you use these Roadmaps is entirely up to you – either as is or as a starting-point for constructing your own…

KS4

Malbank School